Copyright and Release Documents Forms Protect You
Gustavo Baner
Team ColorCopiesUSA.cominfo@colorcopiesusa.com
1-877-421-0668
Date Published: 2018-11-21 // Updated: 2020-09-10
Topic: Technical Knowledge
Copyright and Liability Release documents are very important to every business
There are a couple of legal protection actions and documents that we would like you to at least be aware of: Liability Release and Copyright protection
Liability Protection Documents
Avoid potential legal actions:
A legal release of responsibility document or a waiver of liability, terminate a liability. It is a way to be protected against unexpected lawsuits.
Although some releases can be made orally, a clear and well-crafted document increases the level of protection significantly.
Some businesses require release forms to be signed by their customers to avoid any potential future legal action against them. These documents are in practice, contracts that present facts (usually related to liability and responsibility). Those different consumers might interpret it in different ways.
Some businesses whose customers must know what is the extent of their right to use certain materials, including photographers, graphics artists, cover artists, producers, advertising and marketing professionals, data collectors, research institutions, self-storage facilities and many more will benefit themselves as well as their clients by explicitly signing legal protection documents.
Release documents help protect rights. A release document, whether printed out of your home printer or through color copies printed at a professional printing company clearly states the rights and limitations to the use of a certain type of property. It is a very useful document: A release document is a perfect way to make rights clear.
Some specialized attorneys will help you protect your intellectual property. Using release forms in your business is a simple way to self protect against unauthorized use of copyright materials.
It is handy for a professional who runs into this instance frequently to keep several color copied forms in a file folder or the corporate folder shown to prospective customers. The forms can be either a single-sided document with no chemical carbon copy, or you could have carbonless multi-copy forms ready for deployment when necessary.
Have forms available at your office:
Example:
Let's say that you are writing a training manual of which you expect to make color copies for your outside sales team. You designed your document with confidential information, useful for the sales team. You used a professional company to print your training manual, they made the color copies on the right stock and got them bound as needed.
Now the team has color copies of sensitive information that needs to be protected. A release form is ideal on that occasion. So along with a copy of the manual, have your team members sign a copy of the release form, which will create further safety
As part of your business documents, you should have color-copied forms. Those forms need to look professional, neatly digitally printed, and must match the format of your other corporate documents. Have those copies available every time you meet prospective customers. At the moment of the negotiation, it is the moment when you should extend two copies of the release document to frame the scope of the agreement being made. Sharing those printed copies at a later moment might be seen as inappropriate by one of the parties.
Copyrights
Who gets copy rights in the US?
In the US, as soon as an original piece of work is created, such as a picture, a book, a piece of art, a photograph, or even the programmer's coding, that creator immediately gets copyrights.
In the US, the office that handles copyrights is the United States Copyright Office (click to go to their page) Copyrights, as defined by that office:
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship,"
Reproducing, copying, or utilizing that creation without authorization could mean that someone is taking advantage of someone else's property. Even color copying one of those pieces might be questionable.
Showing something publicly could also be an infringement of copyrights.
In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author.
What Is Not Protected by Copyright? (from US copyright office)
Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection.
These include among others:
• Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded)
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration.
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Color Copies USA is a full-service color printing company that also offers direct mailing and graphic design services. We have a very experienced and motivated staff ready to assist you in all your color printing needs.
